Foreword: First off, I apologize for the comment about Fanfiction.net in the last episode. I've changed my mind after that. It doesn't seem THAT bad anymore, actually... ^_^ When I went on hiatus, however, I had a major list of complaints, ranging from the frequent and long periods of downtime to my stories disappearing to all those ads - which, incidentally, are still plaguing my Ziggy - to an overflow of authors who REALLY lacked something in their writing. *sighs* Where are all the good authors (ex. Loren Leah) when you want them...? ;_; And yes, I didn't really like the rules because they, in my opinion, were a bit restrictive, but I also have to apologize about misinterpreting the "no author's notes" rule. I'm still using footnotes, though.

And finally, a correction to a footnote in the last chapter: I finally found out what badge Rudy bears, if you really care. It's the Spiked Shell, not the Sea Ruby. (Thanks, Ryoshuu.com!)

Anywho, and now, the moment you've all been jonesing for... *pauses to pull out a bottle of Jones Soda because she's "got a jones for a Jones"* ...Episode two!

***
Episode 02--
Fear Not, Young Shifter!

The hospital room was bleak, dreary, and gray, though it had once been an innocent white. The curtains were drawn. A middle-aged man lay in a bed, coughing every so often. His skin was pale and yellow, and his eyes were partially glazed. One of his weak hands were held between the two hands of a woman sitting in a chair next to the bed. Tears streamed down her face from her troubled, amber eyes.

"Sarah..." The man coughed before he could finish his thought.

"Michael, rest," the woman said, clutching his hand in hers. "Everything is taken care of."

"I hope..." He coughed. "...that you and June and Oliver will be alright..." He coughed again. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't apologize," Sarah told him lightly. "You couldn't have stopped yourself from getting sick. And please don't worry. I'll keep my job, and June will take over the business. I told you before, everything is taken care of."

"Not everything..." Michael coughed.

Sarah waited for what he had to say.

"Sarah, tell the kids what I have to say..." He coughed once more. "...and remember it yourself too..."

"What?" Sarah pulled a hand away from his and wiped her eyes.

Michael paused for a long time. "I love you..."

He went into a final fit of coughs before finally relaxing. He rested his head on the hospital pillow and closed his eyes. His hand felt limp in Sarah's, and his wrist held no sign of a pulse.

Sarah burst into tears.

~~~

A blank word processing document had been started. The writer, however, took a few moments to think before starting. The bleak whiteness stared at him expectantly. He wondered for a moment if he should wait for further information before chronicling data.

His fingers drifted to the right keys on the keyboard as he reminded himself of the purpose of this. Perhaps if he wrote everything he already knew down, something would click, and things can be figured out.

He began to type:

"About a week ago, I was involved in a freak accident involving my latest invention, the Time Capsule Beta, otherwise known as the TCB. From what my partner and computer, Zigurat Alpha, had figured out, the TCB had activated while I was unconscious, altering my DNA to allow for a certain otherwise unexplainable phenomenon.

"This occurance, which I have called "shifting," transfers my mind and soul out of my body at brief, random periods of time. Both of my essences are then transferred to a host, which so far have only been Pokémon. The shift is obviously only temporary, but in that period of time, I'm expected to complete a certain task."

He stopped. That was all he knew, save for extra names, including how he had named those who shifted shifters (unless in a host, which they are then called hostees) and that Ziggy had dubbed their relationship between each other "Warp".*1* Of course, this didn't help him figure out exactly what was going on. It was just useless data on Warp itself.

He sighed. Two shifts,*2* and still nothing figured out.

He stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of his computer in the cellar with one hand behind his back and the other touching his chin.

Suddenly, a voice started humming the Jeopardy! theme song behind him. Startled, he turned to see Ziggy with a smug expression on her face, smirking at Bill as her arms were crossed and as she stood, half seen, in her blue-gray program window which had popped up on the computer screen. Just as she finished the song, Bill rolled his eyes.

"Hello, Ziggy," he said in an unenthusiastic tone.

"Hey, Bill! What's up?" Ziggy's eyes drifted onto the document. "Ooh... Trying to figure out the secrets of shifting, huh? Good luck! Even I can't figure it all out, and I've got the strongest connection to Zero!"

Bill stared blankly at her. "Zero?"

"Oh yeah! Forgot to tell you! Our anonymous tipster finally gave me a name," Ziggy told him with a shrug. "I don't know how she could be anonymous after that, but she calls herself Zero. She says she likes you, and she'll give you as much help as she can."

"Exactly how are you getting messages from her?" Bill questioned, narrowing his eyes at her. "You were programmed to stay out of my e-mail in case something private came up."

Ziggy shrugged again. "I'm not getting messages from her through e-mail; she doesn't give me one. She just sort of feeds information to me."

"Oh great. A hacker." Bill sighed. "Well, it could be worse. She could have corrupted my mainframe." He looked at Ziggy and went closer to the screen. "By the way, do you know anything else about shifting?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Sorry."

"Can you ask Zero?"

"I can only ask her when she's connected to me. Right now, she's not."

Bill sighed again, this time in frustration. "I wish I knew a little bit more about this."

"That makes two of us," Ziggy commented before she closed her eyes and sat back. "But at least I'm not too worked up about it. Why ARE you so interested in trying to explain the unexplainable?"

"It's what I do," Bill replied dryly. "Did you come out just to interrupt my train of thought?"

"Ooh... Touchy..." Ziggy rolled her eyes. "Geez, when we were younger, you appreciated my visits!"

"People, unlike obsolete programs, change," he replied, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Ouch. You know you really know how to hurt a person," she observed.

"Hmm..." Bill, still narrowing his eyes at Ziggy, began pacing again.

"Oh, come on! We haven't bonded for ten years!*3*" Ziggy reminded him with a pleading tone.

He rolled his eyes. "Not now, Ziggy."

"Oh, come on!" she pleaded. "I'll even go first! Okay, let's see... I haven't really changed too much. I'm still your friendly little hologram you know and love. My interests are reading Shakespeare files you have stored in your hard drive, playing games, solving puzzles, having intelligent conversations, and sleeping. I love the colors blue and pink, bunnies, cute guys, and a good game of chess, but I hate negative people and long periods of silence. My phobias include viruses and worms, the antivirus program, the delete key, and Togepi."

"Togepi?"

"Yeah! You can NEVER trust a face that cute!"

Bill let out a short laugh before continuing to pace.

"Well?" Ziggy gave Bill an expectant look.

Bill turned his head to look at her. "Well what?"

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Ziggy inquired.

"Anything," Bill replied with an amused smirk as he turned away.

"Oh, very cute," Ziggy snapped sarcastically. "Come on! Be serious!"

He didn't reply.

"At least tell me what you're afraid of," Ziggy begged. "I've got this big facination with human fear... Did you ever get over that stupid fear of Fearows?"

Bill turned his head toward her again and glared. Ziggy looked at him for a few moments before bursting out in laughter.

"You're still afraid of Fearows!" she gasped between laughs.

"That's not funny!" Bill told her sharply. "I was attacked by Fearows once, and since then, I can't even walk up to one! Do you know how much that got in the way of my research!?"

Ziggy tried to kill her fit of giggles, but she could only manage to choke out an apology and more giggles. Bill growled in frustration just before Ziggy stopped abruptly.

"Well, it's about time you realized there's no humor in my fear," Bill said with an annoyed tone.

"Oh, it's not that," Ziggy responded. "It's funny as sin. It's just that Zero just phoned in to tell you that--"

Suddenly, Bill's body went ridged. His eyes closed, and a silver light engulfed him before gathering up and hovering above his head. It vanished just before he limply fell to the ground.

"--You were going to shift," Ziggy finished, staring at his body while figuring that her last sentence meant nothing.

The girl sighed and disappeared from the screen.

~~~

{I still need to get used to this,} Bill muttered to himself as he opened his eyes.

He found himself in a barn of some sort, in the complete dark, save for a few rays of sunshine filtering in through cracks between the wooden boards which made the walls. He could feel that he was sitting in the loft on a bed of straw. Though it was dark in the room, he looked down. Straight down. A shiver went down his spine as he briefly went over the consequences of attempting to get down by jumping down.

His arm passed through a beam of light as he tried to find his way to a route to the ground.*4* Only, it wasn't an arm. He extended it out and examined it through the slender beam. Brown feathers...

He quickly realized he had shifted into a bird, though which one was hard to tell. Trying to figure out what Pokémon he had shifted into wasn't his top priority at that moment. Getting down, however, was.

In previous shifts, he learned that, though he was separate from the mind and consciousness of the Pokémon he would shift into, he could still make use of any skill, attack, and ability that Pokémon had as soon as he entered its body. And because his current host had a flying ability...

He extended his new wings as far as they would go and followed his host's Pokémon instincts. His feet pushed off the edge of the loft. His wings flapped gently to keep him from dropping straight down. He slowly circled to the ground. And in a way, this made him feel peaceful and free until he reached the ground.

His feet touched the ground, and he folded his wings. Now the time was right for him to find out what he had shifted into. And to do that, he needed more light.

He walked to the barn doors and struggled to open it, trying to use his wings and beak to pull one of the double doors back through a crack between the doors. Finally, with a bit of struggling, he succeeded, and the door swung open.

Sunlight assaulted his eyes. He squinted and covered his head with a wing until the light no longer burned. He blinked a few times and looked around.

Okay, he was in the middle of a field, near a quaint, little house. That was it. Countryside in all its quaintness.

Finally, he returned to trying to figure out what he was. Brown wings, pink feet, brown all over (from what he saw)...

Long neck, long beak, and a tan back?

There was a pause before it dawned on him. He screeched in horror, but, to his ears, it came out as one thing:

"Fearow!"

{Oh...! Three hundred and fifty one*5* species of Pokémon, and I had to shift into THIS ONE!} He cried out in dismay as he covered his head with his wings. {Oh god! This CAN'T be happening!}*6*

He shivered uncontrollably as Ziggy appeared.

"Well, doesn't this irony just kill you?" she said with a smirk she tried to hide behind one pink-nailed hand.

{Oh! Ziggy! Please! Help me!} Bill pleaded.

"Yeah. Sure." Ziggy's blue-shadowed eyelids fell until they covered half her eyes. "How?"

{I don't know! There has to be a way to get out of here!}

"Sorry, Bill. You're stuck until you finish your mission."

Bill whimpered softly, listening for what he had to do.

"Ready?" Ziggy inquired. "Okay, on this case, the daughter of your host's owner -- her name is June -- has just inherited her family business. Unfortunately, with her father dead, her mother can't quite bring home enough bacon to support June, June's brother, Oliver, and herself. That's where you come in. See, Fearow doesn't seem to want to obey June, or anyone else for that matter, so you have to take over for awhile to help June make a little profit from her Fearow delivery service so she can support her family. Got all of that?"

Bill didn't answer.

"I'm gonna assume that's a 'yes,'" Ziggy muttered. "Remember, call me if you need me! Ciao!"

With that, Ziggy transported away, leaving Bill alone, trapped and terrified inside Fearow.

'What am I going to do...?' Bill asked himself as he closed his eyes and tried desperately to control his fear.

~~~

He opened his eyes and found himself on a bed, under a sheet.

'I must have dozed off,' he thought as he looked around the small, country room.

"Feeling any better, Sunny?"

Bill looked up to see a girl about his age with bright, hazel eyes and soft, straight, violet hair cascading down her back. She put a bowl of birdseed on a nightstand next to the bed and a bowl of water next to that.

"I found you outside," she said, still looking at the bird seed. "I know you loved Dad a lot, and I'm not surprised that you're sick with grief."

She took a handful of birdseed and held it up to Bill's beak. He stared at her blankly for awhile until she sighed and dropped the birdseed back into the bowl.

"You still won't trust me," she muttered as she stroked his head. "It's a shame, though. We really need you."

She turned and began walking away. When she was almost out the door, she turned around again.

"Get well soon, Sunny," she told him softly before she walked out the door.

He remembered the name Ziggy had given him. 'June...'

He went over what June had said. They needed him. Well, Sunny, anyways. He had to get over his fear of Fearows to help June. And once he helped her with her business, her family would be alright.

The problem, however, was that a person just can't simply get over a fear with no problem, and Bill was well aware of this.

~~~

That night, Bill remained in the guest bed, wide awake and unable to sleep in his host's body. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that little scene from awhile ago.

He was younger, barely old enough to train Pokémon. A friend of his, the same one he met the day he stopped playing with Ziggy*7*, had Bill watch him practice soccer, kicking a ball against a tree. Unfortunately, in its were Fearow nests, and as soon as his friend's soccer ball struck the tree, a flock of Fearows burst into the air like spores and dove down to try to strike the boys.

Both began to run, but Bill's friend was faster and soon left him behind. On the other hand, Bill himself wasn't the fastest person in the world, the Fearows remained dangerously close behind him.

He remembered tripping and falling forward, burying his face in his arms as the Fearows literally tore at him with their beaks. By the time his father had found him and managed to scare the Fearows away, his clothes already had large, crimson stains on them, his arm had been broken by a Fearow, and he was near unconsciousness.*8*

Presently, he shivered and opened his eyes.

'This is ridiculous,' Bill thought. 'First off, I'm a Pokémon researcher. I shouldn't be afraid of that which I study. Secondly...'

He got out of bed and stood in the middle of the room.

'I'm a shifter.'

He looked at his wings.

'As a shifter, I need to put my fears behind me and aide those in need.'

He took a deep breath and stood tall.

'Tomorrow. I'll force myself into forgetting my fears. June and her family need Sunny.'

There was a mirror on top of a bureau to his left. He looked in it and made out the silhouette of his Fearow host. He shivered.

'I just hope I can do this...'

~~~

Back in the lighthouse, a vent in the cellar was kicked open. Two figures dropped out of the ventilation system, one male, the other female. The male turned on a flashlight as the female rushed over to a desk and rooted through papers.

"Hurry up!" the male whispered. "What if he wakes up?"

"Doubt it," the female replied with her Southern belle accent. "This is a big place. He can't even hear us from here. And I don't see him around, do you?"*9*

The female kept looking around the desk until her hand bumped a computer mouse. The screensaver vanished, revealing the document Bill had been working on earlier.

"Hey, Clyde! I bet Boss Lokov would just die to see this, wouldn't you say so?" The female smirked before she grabbed a floppy disc nearby, popped it into the computer, deleted its contents, and saved the document to it.

"Bonnie! Remember why we came here!" Clyde snapped.

"Sugar, I didn't forget," Bonnie responded before searching the computer for the file that contained the coding for the TCB.

When she found what she was looking for, she saved this document to the disc as well and pulled the disk out of the computer before exiting out of the program. She took one final glance at a little program with a SD*10* of Ziggy, sleeping while sitting on her knees and blowing a little bubble out of her nose. The words "Zigurat Alpha in Sleep Mode" stood above her head in red letters.

"Aww... isn't that adorable?" Bonnie cooed.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Clyde muttered. "Come on before we start leaving evidence!"

"Oh, fine, fine!" Bonnie retorted. "Be a gentleman and give me a boost then, sugar!"

Clyde stood under the vent and gave Bonnie a boost up until she could reach it and crawl inside. He jumped, grabbed the edge of the vent, and crawled in behind Bonnie before carefully closing the vent.

~~~

June had donned a red pilot's hat, complete with a pair of goggles strapped to it. She pulled on a fighter pilot's jacket over her red slipover, and her khaki pants were tucked into a pair of knee-high, brown hiking boots. In one red-gloved hand, she held up a tangle of leather straps as she smiled and mumbled soothing words to Bill.

'What exactly are you going to do with that?' Bill mentally questioned.

June whispered soft words to him as she tried to pry open his beak and slip one of the leather straps into it so she could tie the rest of the harness around his head. He realized what she was doing and, though it made him feel as if his dignity had slipped away again (much like it had when Abbie put the blue straw hat on him), he opened his beak and allowed June to slip the bit in.

After she had finally gotten him ready, June put a beige messenger bag on her shoulder and mounted, sitting on his shoulders.*11* She grabbed the reins and snapped them.

"Sunny! Tobu!"*12*

June pulled back on the reins, causing Bill to look up. Taking the hint, he unfolded his wings, pushed off the ground, and flew upwards. He had a bit of difficulty, never having flying at a higher altitude than in the barn, and definitely not having carried someone of June's weight on his shoulders. He experienced a bit of trouble, trying to remained balanced so as not to drop June.

Finally, June placed a hand on his back and pushed down once as she leaned forward and said, "Suihei!"*13*

It took him a quick moment to figure out what she meant, immediately afterwards he straightened out and flew straight.

June sat on his back like a princess on her favorite horse. Every so often, she'd have Bill fly down so she could make a stop here and there, at which point, like a pizza delivery girl, she'd get her payment and tip. Then she would get on his back again and have him take off. This went on for about eight hours until June's messanger bag was empty before she slowly guided Bill back to her home.

She smiled and reached out to stroke the back of his neck and head. He shivered for a moment but then allowed her to keep doing so. Finally, she spoke.

"This is the first time you've obeyed me like this," June muttered. "Thanks, Sunny. Keep this up, and we'll have as much money as we did when Dad was alive."

He said nothing.

"I miss him too..."

Bill could feel an emotion inside of him that wasn't his, but Sunny's instead. His heart felt empty because of Sunny. He could then feel something warm and liquidy drop onto his neck, and he knew this was from June. He couldn't see her face, but he knew she was crying. That emptiness in Sunny's heart grew.

'Don't you see, Sunny?' Bill asked his host mentally. 'If you would accept June, she can help you through this. True, losing a loved one hurts, but remember that you're not alone. Your owner had a family who now mourn for him. Don't cut yourself off from them. Allow them to help you.'

Bill wondered if Sunny received the message, but he didn't receive a response. Instead, June guided him downward to the ground in front of the barn.

June immediately hopped off and headed toward the house. She turned around briefly and smiled at him.

"Come on! I'll get you some birdseed and water," June offered.

He nodded and followed.

~~~

Bill remained on the backporch as June went in to get snacks. He looked up at the sky as a question floated into his mind.

{Ziggy?}

Almost immediately, Ziggy appeared beside him. She crossed her arms and smirked.

"Still having troubles?"

{I've tried to put that in the back of my mind. So far, it seems to be working. I haven't broken down with the thought that I'm in a Fearow.}

"Darn. I would've loved to see that."

{You sadist!}

Ziggy shrugged as she lowered her eyelids. "So, what did you call me for?"

{Oh, right!} Bill paused for a moment. {How much longer must I stay here?}

"Hey, you control your shifting, remember?" Ziggy opened her eyes and cocked her head. "When you're ready, you shift out by yourself."

{I am ready,} Bill replied, {but I still haven't shifted. I've completed the mission and helped June with earning money, and yet I'm still stuck in Sunny...}

"Maybe there's something else you have to do," Ziggy suggested. "What about getting Sunny to obey June?"

{I've talked to him about that,} Bill responded. {Or at least I think I did...}

"Maybe that could be your problem." Ziggy shrugged.

Just then, a shriek pierced the air from inside.

"That would be your cue." Ziggy waved briefly. "Ciao!"

With that, she disappeared. Bill turned and managed to get through the backdoor to see a pair of Team Rocket members just inside. A male Rocket held June while a female Rocket advanced on Bill with a net. The female threw the net at him, but he quickly dodged it.

"Here, little birdie!" the woman cooed as she stood back up with the net. "I won't hurt you! I just want you to come with us so you can help us make a few bucks...!"

Again, she dove, and again, Bill dodged her. June bit the hand of the male Rocket (which he had placed over her mouth). As he waved his hand and cursed, she managed to yell something to Bill.

"Sunny! Get out of here! Fly away and get help!"

Again, the woman dove at him. He managed to get back outside before she could catch him. As soon as he hit open air, he ran forward, jumped, and flew into the air before turning around and hovering there. The male Rocket dragged June out behind the female, who was chasing after Bill.

"Dammit!" the woman cursed as she stamped her foot like a child.

"Hey, Rose! Try using a Pokémon!" the male suggested.

"I knew that!" Rose snapped as she held up a PokéBall. "Go! Golbat!"

She tossed out the PokéBall, which then opened up and released a large, blue bat.

"Golbat! Supersonic!"

Golbat opened its large mouth wider, sending out a wave of sound. It rang in Bill's ears so loudly he thought his head would split. When it was over, he couldn't see clearly.

June stomped on the Rocket's foot, sending him in a fury of pain and curses as he hopped on one foot. She then ran forward and called out to Sunny.

Suddenly, though he thought he had imagined it at first, a voice floated into Bill's head.

'Is it true?'

He hazily found himself on the ground.

Weakly, he mentally replied. 'What is?'

'What you said,' the other voice replied. 'Is it alright if I helped June? Will I be alright without Michael?'

'I'm sure I don't know who Michael is,' Bill answered, 'but I'd say the former would be alright.'

The rest seemed blurry to Bill. He knew he heard June giving him commands, and he was sure that, looking through Sunny's eyes, he was carrying these orders out, but it felt like he was only sitting in the back of Sunny's mind, letting someone else handle the battle. That was possible, right?

The next thing he knew, Team Rocket had been blown away. Literally. But he still didn't know how he did that...*14*

~~~

By the time the confusion from the Supersonic wore off, Bill found himself back in the guest room, once again in the bed with a sheet over him. June had put a cold, wet cloth on his forehead to soothe the effects quickly. Then, she, her mother, and the little, purple-haired, hazel eyed boy that was her brother, watched him in anticipation. He groaned, twitched, and blinked a few times before sitting up.

"Sunny, are you alright?" June inquired.

Bill looked at her with a warm glance and nodded. She smiled happily (as did the rest of her family) before she embraced him.

"Oh thank Heaven!" she exclaimed as she cried with happiness.

Her mother smiled warmly, and Oliver had already gotten on the bed to pet Bill.

'Well,' Bill thought, 'I've done as much as I could here. June has earned a bit of money to help out, and Sunny is finally obeying June. Or at least I think so...'

As if in response, a warm feeling filled his chest, just before the silver light appeared again and blackness clouded his eyesight.

~~~

Once again, he found himself on the floor, in his human body. He stood up, using the chair and the desk to help him. He held his head and wobbled slightly, still not quite recovered after the Supersonic attack.

"Aww... rough shift?"

Bill looked at the computer monitor just in time to see Ziggy reappear with yet another taunting expression.

"Rough shift?" Bill scoffed. "Of course it was a rough shift!"

"Well, put it this way, you're not afraid of Fearows anymore," Ziggy commented.

Bill smiled sheepishly and nodded. "You know, you're absolutely right."

"Of course I'm right!" Ziggy replied. "Ziggy's never wrong!"

Bill went on as if he hadn't even heard Ziggy's comment. "Most therapists have said that the best way to get over a fear is to face it, and what better way of facing a fear of Fearows than to actually live as one for a day?"

"That's absolutely true!" Ziggy agreed. "Aren't you glad you shifted?"

There was a pause.

"You know, you aren't the only sadist here," Bill told her slowly as he grinned deviously.

Ziggy cocked her head. "What are you talking about?"

Bill leaned forward to reach the keyboard and typed a few commands into Ziggy's program. He straightened up and watched as a Togepi appeared next to Ziggy in her little program box. She took one look at it, shrieked, and began running around. Togepi followed her, waving its little arms in an attempt to catch her.

"Bill! This isn't funny!" Ziggy screamed. "Turn it off! Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!!"

Bill sighed in happiness. "Revenge is sweet..."

Ziggy kept running. "BILL!!"

"Hold on," he responded. "Give me ten minutes, more or less."

Ziggy cried out in agony as she sank to her knees, allowing Togepi to jump on her. Bill smirked in satisfaction.

~~~

In a darkened office, Bonnie and Clyde approached an office behind which was a man sitting facing away from them in an office chair.

"Boss Lokov, we've brought you something from McKenzie's lab," Bonnie told him, placing the disc on his desk. "This disc contains the programming for the Time Capsule as well as information on something called 'shifting.'"

"Shifting?" Lokov inquired.

"It talks about transferring people's minds and souls into Pokémon's bodies," Bonnie said.

Lokov turned his chair around to face the two. He picked up the disc in front of him and examined it.

"Quite interesting," he muttered before gazing up at his lackeys. "You've done well. Now leave my office and forget everything you've seen on this disc."

"Yes, sir," the two replied before saluting and leaving the office.

As the door closed behind them, Lokov leaned back in his chair and examined the disc again. He smirked and laughed quietly and devilishly.

"You've always been a wealth of useful information, haven't you, McKenzie?"*15* he said, partially to himself.

***

End episode two

---
Footnotes:

*1*: I can't remember exactly what the label for that was in Quantum Leap... O_o; Anywho, Warp is sort of like Sam, Al, and (QL's) Ziggy... only here we have two characters... not counting that mysterious anonymous tipster... ^_^;

*2*: Because I have problems with writing too many chapters/episodes (Why? Um... I lose interest and never finish the fanfiction? ^_^;), instead of writing an episode every time Bill shifts, I'll only write one whenever something major happens, including here, where I give names to actions/objects, give that "anonymous tipster" from the first episode a name, and have the opportunity to make a few Fearow cracks. (If you've ever read Pokémon Adventurers, you'd know why I've made any at all. ^_^;) Anywho, here I mention another shift, aside from the one with Strawberry and Abbie. You're supposed to figure that he did and that in it, nothing important happened, okay? (Yeah, I know. This is as Swiss cheesy as Cardcaptors. Gomen nasai! ^_^;)

*3*: There's been a whole debate over how old any of the Pokémon characters are, and my own opinions have tended to vary on the subject of Bill's age, though I've concidered him to be seventeen here. Well, if his birthday were on the day that "Masaki no Toudai" aired (in the summer of 1997... I think...), concidering that this was written in winter of 2003 and that he's roughly the same age as Brock, Tracey, and Team Rocket (lax Meowth), and if Nintendo had its way, then Bill WOULD be seventeen at the time of this fic. -_- According to Nintendo, Brock, Tracey, Jessie, and James were all twelve at the beginning of the show (though they're all OBVIOUSLY over puberty, especially Brock), and if Bill's the same age, then add five years (not counting this year because we're supposing his birthday was on the day that "Masaki no Toudai" aired, and because it's not summer quite yet, then you should add five years instead of six) to get seventeen. Yep. I'm THAT kind of Pokémaniac... ^_^;

*4*: There isn't a loft window. Why? Because baka Mai forgot barns had one until after she wrote that part. ^_^; (Hey, it's not like I live on a farm, you know. -_-) Anywho, we can always pretend that this was to keep the little birdie mentioned later from escaping. ^_^

*5*: By this time, I'm sure all Pokémon fans have heard of Pokémon Advance, otherwise known as Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire. I'm supposing there's another one hundred Pokémon to find, bringing our total up to 351.

*6*: I don't capitalize "god" here because of religious reasons. It's against my (former, as I'm currently an unclassified monotheist) religion to spell out "god" with a capital letter. Instead, many people write it as G-d, though to make it a bit easier to understand without referring to a footnote, I just don't capitalize it. (Though I'm not of that religion anymore, I'm still not comfortable with actually writing it out. O_o;)

*7*: I told you to remember that kid. And keep remembering him; he's going to play a bigger role later. ^_- (Yep! Foreshadowing is fun for you AND me! XD [Inside joke. Sorry. ^_^;])

*8*: I know this isn't really what happens in Pokémon Adventurers. (In Adventurers, Bill is older and ends up turning himself into a Rattata that gets snatched up by a single Fearow... until, of course, Red gets him down... which involves electricuting him with Pikachu first. You just have to feel sorry for poor Masaki-sama, no? ^_^;) But because I'm dealing with the anime version here (Notice I spoke of the lighthouse in the first episode. In every other version, save for Dengeki Pikachuu and the TCG where we don't actually know, he lives in the Sea Cottage.), I can make up things like that because barely any history had been given to him by the writers. Like I said, let's all feel sorry for Masaki-sama. *sympathetically* Aww...

*9*: "He" would be Bill, obviously. And if you're wondering why they didn't notice him on the floor of the cellar, here's a little secret. They're not supposed to!

*10*: SD. It means "super deformed." If you don't know what that looks like, it's the same thing as a chibi. And if you don't know what that looks like, and you've been in the anime fandom community for quite some time, then I have one question for you -- where have you been? =/

*11*: For those of you who have found a dirty meaning in that, shame on you, you dirty, dirty child. -_-

*12*: "Tobu" is Japanese for "fly" (as in the verb).

*13*: "Suihei" is Japanese for "level" as in "horizontal."

*14*: I know. I cut out the action. Why? It's supposed to point out that Bill's not the one battling; it's Sunny. If I didn't do this, then the second half of Bill's mission would be incomplete, and you'd have a never-ending second episode. And you don't want that, do you? ^_^;

*15*: From its beginning to last year, Pokémon World (http://www.pokemon.com) had refered to Bill as McKenzie in its short summary of "Mystery at the Lighthouse." Many Bill fans (including myself and MeowthGal - http://www.geocities.com/billshrine) have actually adopted McKenzie as his surname, regardless of how questionable the information at Pokémon World is. =/